The Next Southwest: Utah

Moab gets a face-lift. The Grand Canyon shows off two secret falls. And the Colorado River makes room for untested paddlers. Presenting the 20 best adventures in the Four Corners, where everything old (even the ancient stuff) is new again.

Text by Kate Siber

Photograph courtesy of Amangiri Resort & Spa

Ride a Newly Remodeled Moab

Moab is at it again. In May the country’s most popular and best publicized biking town will open a remarkable addition: 13 miles of loops in Dead Horse Point State Park, an area once off-limits to the public. The riding is similar to Moab’s finest—slickrock and twisty, moderate singletrack through juniper, piñon, cactus, and yucca—but the views are some of the best in the U.S. Made possible in part by a grant from (get this) a community-minded local mining company, the trails crisscross some prime real estate: the edge of a rock butte that rises 2,000 feet above the snaking Colorado River and once served as a natural corral for wranglers breaking mustangs over a century ago. Pedal past old cowboy sites but linger on until sunset, when the low sun glints off the Colorado and torches the Great Pyramid and Big Chief formations below.